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03 Aug 2015 7:14:18am

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I think that the point that is really germane is that if one is an atheist and finds Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens superficial and polemical, not to mention narrow-minded, regularly wrong and down-right deceitful then one attempts to create some distance between oneself and them. I think that this is an understandable strategy, I cannot see what else to do in this regard. I think that a further germane point is that trawling the web, visiting atheist sites and so forth is no way of gaining a balanced sample – but I think you have acknowledge that this could have influenced your understanding. For instance I am an atheist but I do not spend anytime visiting such sites. I visited a few after the recent eruptions of atheism become prominent but just found that these sorts of things seem to be like deprogramming centers for those who have had a traumatic upbringing or mutual back-patting groups. I can see why these might be needed, both might serve useful psychological functions. I did not attend the atheist convention – I saw no need to get together with other people who do not believe in God to interact over what it is that we do not believe (happy just to get on with my non-belief) – but from what I heard from the interviews it seemed to me to be much the same sort of thing, a useful psychological exercise for those who have had a traumatic experience with religion or require some social reassurance or something like that. Great. But then I don’t need Richard Dawkins to come to Australia to inform me that Australian animals demonstrate that Noah’s ark is a bad way of explaining species diversity. I already had that one nailed. Nor did I require him to tell me that Senator Fielding was twit. Had that one nailed too, indeed I do not think many Australians would have expected much from him. Indeed in regard to Fielding I found Dawkins display appalling – say it once, but don’t beat it like a drum, particularly when everyone already knows that the guy has the intellect of an earthworm. In any case I think that the new atheism is an interesting phenomenon but I think that there are many like myself, who don’t care too much for the polemical, rhetorical and narrow-mindedness of it. But I guess its just up to us to get on with our non-believing quietly, without a sense of urgency or the white-heat of evangelical zeal.